


Sweet as Sugar, Sour as Citrus

by Arcadiusdragoneyes



Category: Cookie Run (Video Game)
Genre: All the cookies are here, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, Gijinka, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, this is entirely self indulgence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2019-10-01 22:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17252927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arcadiusdragoneyes/pseuds/Arcadiusdragoneyes
Summary: Lemon Cookie's college plans involved getting a degree in mechanical engineering, helping Hero Cookie modify and improve the Caramel Syrup Suit, and making sure Orange Cookie and Herb Cookie didn't drive him crazy.Cinnamon Cookie's plans, while not actually attending college, were to become the best magician in the world, all the while trying to get Wizard Cookie to warm up to him.Neither of them intended having, falling in love, added to their plans but a chance encounter at a famous Cheesecake Cookie party changed both their lives forever and now Lemon has to worry about passing his class's, and finding the mysterious magician who disappeared, stealing his heart along the way.





	1. A Taste of Cinnamon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a very sleep deprived haze I joked about writing a fic about my favorite Cookies Cinnamon and Lemon, and even further in said haze I managed to convince myself of the idea and a week later here we are. I promise you that this will not be good in any way, shape, or form, but I hope you enjoy.
> 
> This first chapter is fairly dialogue heavy so I apologize in advanced. The next one is mostly Lemon so he won't be talking too much.

Precision, work like this requires perfect focus. With the tools laid out on the desk and a headphones keeping his blonde bangs out of his face Lemon carefully poked at the Lemon Cube in front of him, "Looks like an internal malfunction... Shouldn't be too hard to repair." He picked up a screw driver set to take the device apart before he felt his headphones pulled from his head.

"Lemon!" He sighed and set the screwdriver down turning in his swivel chair and looked up at the sudden disturbance, Orange Cookie, of course.

"Orange, how did you get in here?" Lemon peered around her to the man shuffling nervously against the wall, "Herb, you let her in?"

"Well you guys are good friends, and she said it was important so I figured you wouldn't mind."

Lemon rolled his eyes, "Alright Orange, what was so important you had to ask my roommate to pester me during important work." He gave his roommate a sharp glance and Herb smiled meekly.

"Get this! Princess and Cheesecake are holding a party! Tonight!" Herb shuffled away from Lemon's harsh glare, meaning he knew that this was what this was about.

"And...?"

"We should go!"

"Pass- I have to repair my Lemon Cube."

"But Lemon!" Orange whined grabbing his hands, "It's a Princess party! We get to go to the castle ballroom, taste fine wine."

"You're underage."

"Still, the castle Lemon! The castle!"

He shook his head in protest and turned his chair away from her, "Sorry I need to fix my cube, I'll probably need to see Hero for this-."

"But Hero's going to the party," Herb paused to rub his chin, "Orange." Orange shut the door and leaned against it, "Captain Caramel is, he was invited after his daring rescue yesterday." Lemon scowled picking up the screw driver again, this presented a problem.

"See, he'll be busy all day getting ready, so just come with us, you can talk to Hero about your tech problems and then hang around for a bit."

"No, I'll talk to Hero about my tech issues and leave." Lemon declared and Orange huffed.

"At least for a bit? Mint Choco is performing early on, so at least stay for that?" Herb asked, "You need to get out more, you get as much sunlight as my plants do." Herb gestured to the lines of plants that lined their shared windowsill. With a sigh Lemon stood up tucking the cube in the pocket of his crisp white jacket.

"Fine, just until Mint's performance. Does this party have a dress code?" Something he dreaded, dressing up, he preferred to dress as simple as he could but desperate time's call for desperate measures.

"Lucky for you, no. C'mon pasty let's go get ready!" Orange took Lemon's arm and pulled them out of his dorm room and herb joined them in the hall locking the door behind him.

"Ready for what, exactly?"

"Just because there's no dress code doesn't mean we can show up looking like slobs to a castle party! Let's go shopping!"

"W-wait Orange!"

 

* * *

 

"And for my next trick I need a volunteer!" He cheered drawing a murmur from the crowd surrounding the ginger magician, "How about... This dashing young lad with the pink hair!"

"A-ah me?" The person he called out stepped out from the crowd, someone he recognized from his friend's class, Gumball, he believed.

"Yes you! You like you appreciate the art's yes?" Prior knowledge, never a bad thing for a magician to have.

Gumball was apprehensive at first to the magicians startling impression on him, "Yeah I do! Though my teachers-."

"That's very well and good but if you'll do me a favor." With a bow taking off his hat, "Reach inside." Gumball reached into the silk hat a pulled out a deck of cards resulting in surprise from the crowd. Cinnamon took the cards from Gumball and fanned them out, "You know the deal," He said shutting his eyes and waited for a card to be pulled, after the card was drawn, memorized, and returned he waved the cards back into a stack and shuffled them, bridging the cards in an arc above his head he tucked the deck back into the hat and tapped it with his wand he drew from his sleeve, "Reach in again." Gumball reached in again, pulling out a single card, "The nine of spades, was that your card~?"

"W-what! How!" Gumball stared at the card in amazement before Cinnamon took it back sliding it into his sleeve.

"Thank you thank you!" He bowed as the crowd cheered for him and rose back up, "But unfortunately that's all the time we have for today, so until next time, stay in wonder, ta ta~!" With a flourish of his cape he vanished leaving the crowd astonished. He reappeared a few blocks away with a smirk, "Another amazing show!"

"Amazing is one word for it." A voice called and Cinnamon sighed, he didn't even have to look at them to know who it was.

"Wizard, how lovely it is to see you."

"I wish I could say the same. That's no real magic you use." Wizard said and Cinnamon shrugged grandly.

"Of course it is, I use spells just the same as you, marking spells, teleportation, I just prefer the simple things to entertain, rather than you who practices those old Millennia spells."

"They're Moonlighten."

"Ah yes, you do revere that old master oh so much." Cinnamon rolled his shoulders adjusting his cape as Wizard pulled his scarf back up over his mouth, "Did you need something or did you just come to heckle? I have a new trick for hecklers, it involves a couple swords."

"Moonlight has summoned us to the castle."

"Us?"

"You, Alchemist, Cream Puff, Snow Sugar," Cinnamon brightened at the mention of his dear cousin, "and myself."

"Us practitioners of Moonlighten magic, but mine is from the Millennian strand."

"She is aware, but our presences is required so who are we to ignore the calling of one we consider a god?" Cinnamon couldn't argue with Wizard on that front, despite the other magic users claims that he used no real magic he had a deep respect for them, every demonstration he had ever seen from Wizard inspired him more and more.

“Pardon, but who gave you said summons? Was it Moonlight herself?" Cinnamon asked but before Wizard could answer he gave a dismissive wave, "Ah that doesn't matter, c’mon let’s hurry! Maybe Moonlight will teach us a few tricks if we’re early!”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up Cinnamon, but let’s see what she asks of us.

 

Cinnamon and Wizard hurried to the palace where they were met by the rest of the magical cookies, Vampire was there too for some reason, “Wizard, you invited my brother?” Alchemist asked with an accusatory town twirling a vial in her hand with seemingly the intent to throw it at Wizard.

“I didn’t summon him, Moonlight did-.” Wizard said before someone cleared their throat.

“T-that wasn’t entirely true.” It was Wizard’s student Snow Sugar, “I made that up.” This caused Alchemist to direct her anger towards the young child and his crisp pale snow hair.

“Why make up a summons from Moonlight?!”

“Well Princess was holding a party tonight, and I wanted you all to go as well-.” He said and the magical court gave a collective sigh, not much to be angry about the well meaning a of a child.

“Just looking out for us Snow.” Cinnamon crouched down to his height and with a wave of his hand brought a cookie to it, “Thanks cousin. I’ll gladly attend this party, can’t say the same for the others though.” He patted him on the head and stood back up handing him the treat, “I must get ready though, I can’t show up in my street clothes.”

“You’re street clothes are a fancy silk suit?” Vampire asked joining the group and leaning on his sisters shoulder, “I like your taste~.”

“Thank you Sir Vampire, I must look my best if I’m going to entertain a royal party!”

“Who said anything about you entertaining?” Wizard challenged and Cinnamon cracked a wry smile.

“Myself of course, the Princess loves a good party, and what’s a good party without…” He produced his silk hat from thin air and pulled his wand out of it, “A few party tricks?” He looked to Alchemist knowing she’s take his side, anything to get a rise out of their shared rival.

“I for one think it’s a marvelous idea.” Alchemist said stirring her vial more, “Besides he’ll only be entertain a small group out of the what, 300 guests? He won’t be causing any trouble for anyone.” Alchemist turned to leave heading back to her lab in the palace leaving a stunned Wizard cookie along with his apprentices and Cinnamon.

“Hmmph, you two cause me a lot of trouble, Snow Sugar, Cream Puff, let’s return to the archives, I need to learn some simple party tricks to upstage him.” With an elegant flourish of his cloak Wizard left followed by his two apprentices, Cream Puff giving Cinnamon a short wave before she followed after them.

“And here I thought today would be simple, now then, how shall I dazzle the crowd today?”

 

* * *

 

Night arrived much slower than Lemon wanted but soon enough the three friends were standing by the entrance to the palace ballroom, Knight, Pistachio, and White Choco were surrounding the stage where Princess say waving at everyone who passed by, “Look at all the people!” Orange cheered, she wore an orange chiffon skirt and a matching frilly blouse, trading her usual visor for a headband to keep her bangs up, “I wonder if Lime and Grapefruit got my invite.”

“If you were as persistent as you were with me then I’m sure they did.” Lemon commented tugging on the sleeve of his jacket, a pure white suit jacket and light grey slacks to accompany it he wasn’t one for dress up but he was glad Orange convinced him too, everyone else at the party was dressed relatively nicely. “Do you see Hero?”

“Afraid not, the knights may know.” Herb said, as always when he needed to dress up he had an argyle sweater vest over a white button up with slick black slacks specked with dirt. “Should I get us some drinks?”

“Yeah! I’m gonna try to find Lime and Grapefruit, I take it…?”

“I’ll go look for Hero, let’s meet back here before Mint’s performance.” Lemon left the group and waved his way through the crowd, the only problem with wearing white was he had to be careful not to stain it by bumping into someone and making them spill their drink.

He made it to the front of the room when he found his target, dressed in his super suit was Hero signing autographs for a few people he made his way to him, “Ah another citizen here for an autograph?” He boasted and Lemon rolled his eyes.

“ _C_ _aptain Caramel_ , May I speak to you, in private?” Lemon asked forcing his way between a few people.

“O-Of course! Give me just one moment everyone!” Hero pulled Lemon aside to an empty buffet table, “What’s up Lemon?” He fished out the dull cube from his pocket.

“I busted my Lemon Cube somehow, got any idea on how to fix it?” He extended his cherished possession to his friend who reached to take it before a third hand rushed in to grab it. “Hey!” Lemon’s voice filled with panic as he turned to face the their, a man with pale skin, ginger hair, and a confident smile was standing on the table, dressed in black slacks and a bright orange shirt held up by suspenders wrapped in a cape with cards lining the inside.

“Don’t worry it’ll be safe, just need an object around this size for my next trick!” They hadn’t noticed but the man had gathered a large crowd around him whispering in awe as he showed off the cube to everyone.

“It’s okay Lemon, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Hero reassured him quietly as Lemon watched the magician with an annoyed look plastered on his face.

“And the puzzle cube goes into the hat-.” The magician dropped the cube into his hat and produced a wand and dragged it along the rim of the hat tapping it before flipping it upside down, nothing came out.

“W-where did it-!” Lemon was cut off when the man leaped from the table and reached into Lemons coat, he felt his face get hot as the man drew closer letting him get a good like at his fiery dark orange eyes, filled with confidence. He pulled back and the Lemon Cube was in his hand.

“Tada~!” The audience applauded as he handed the cube back to Lemon who pulled it close to his chest. He stepped away and bowed while Lemon stared at him.

“Uh Lemon, can I see the cube? I have people waiting for autographs.” Hero asked and without taking his gaze away from the magician Lemon handed off the cube. “Let’s see here. Ah, here’s the problem, your natural electricity overcharged the circuits, I have replacement parts in my room, think you can fix it yourself?”

“Yeah yeah…” Lemon took the cube back and tucked it into his jacket, “I have to go meet up with Herb and Orange before I go, I’m staying for Mint’s performance so if you have free time we’ll be by the entrance if you want to join us.”

“Sure thing citizen!” Hero said adopting his Captain Caramel demeanor again, “If you have any more tech problems call tech support- can’t rely on this hero to save the day again!” Hero jokes before leaving Lemon, still watching the Magician’s performance for a bit before heading back to the entrance. His heart was pounding and his face was hot.

“What did that magician do to me?”

 

“There you are Lemon, you took a while, was your problem that bad?” Orange asked as Lemon rejoined his friends and Herb handed him a glass of wine.

“It’s Cabernet Franc, try it.” Herb offered and Lemon shrugged taking a sip.

“No fair, how come you two get to drink?” Orange said thumbing the rim of her cup which was filled with an orange drink, probably her favorite

“I’m 21, he’s 23, you’re 20,” Lemon said taking another sip, "And no my problem wasn't much, it shouldn't be too hard to fix." 

“It’s not fair.” Orange protested and Herb smiled softly.

“Laws are laws Orange, just a few more months and I’ll treat you to some of my favorite types.” Herb offered and Orange’s face brightened at the prospect.

“You’re the best Herb! Where are you when I need you Lemon?” Orange challenged and Lemon held out his free hand.

“Is your phone dying?” He asked and soon his hand was filled the the familiar weight.

“Thanks dude!” Orange smiles and he rolled his eyes turning his attention to the stage as Princess and her guards left and were replaced by Cheesecake who took the microphone from its stand and cleared her throat.

“Are you all having a good time?” The guests arouse in a jumbled sound of agreement, Lemon found his gaze wandering the crowd to find the magician from earlier but he seemed to have pulled a disappearing act. “Great! Now then, enjoy the fine styling of our own White Choco’s brother, Mint Choco!” The crowd applauded and the Mahican took the stage his dark skin shining under the stages lights violin in hand he raised the instrument and began to play as the crowd fell silent.

“Ah isn’t he dreamy?” Orange asked and Lemon glanced at her.

“Didn’t you say the other day that Cheesecake was dreamy?”

“I can find multiple people attractive, Lemon.” Orange stuck her tongue out at him and he shook his head biting the inside of his cheek. “His music’s good though, I know you prefer EDM but-.”

“I can enjoy classical music too sometimes, thankfully most classical pieces aren’t all bass.” Lemon commented eyes still searching for the man he met earlier.

“Looking for someone?” Herb asked and he shook his head.

“Just Hero, I asked him to join us if he was done and he may.” He lied but his friends didn’t know that, Herb peered at him for a second before shrugging.

“I’ll keep an eye out too.” He offered and began to search the crowd with him even though they were searching for different targets.

Mint stopped playing and there was applause and after a bow he stepped off stage and the party resumed as normal, “That’s my end of the deal, are you two staying?” Lemon asked stepping back to distance himself from the loud applause stepping into the doorway ready to leave.

“I didn’t get a chance to say hi to Hero so I’ll stay for a bit.” Herb said and Orange yawned.

“I’m sleepy and Lime and Grapefruit aren’t around, so I think I’ll stay for a bit longer. Goodnight Lemon.”

“Yeah Goodnight guys.” Lemon waved his friends goodbye and left the ballroom and went into the entrance hall of the palace where he noticed the magical court was gathered.

The four were gathered in a circle talking among themselves, “He was off causing trouble like always…” One he recognized, the court sorcerer Wizard said and Lemon slowed down to catch their conversation.

“He’s having fun and livening things up, Princess looks happy so we can’t complain.” A short girl with bright purple hair said and Wizard shrugged.

“You’re not wrong. As long as he doesn’t break anything we should let the common magician have his fun.”

"See, I told you guys this would be fun!" One of the younger two said, Lemon assumed they were apprentices given his height and voice.

"We can thank Cinnamon for that! He always livens things up." The younger girl added and the boy nodded eagerly before Lemon looked away to resume his departure.

"So... His name was Cinnamon?"

 

* * *

 

"And that's all for now folks! I'll be taking a short break and then I'll be back to amaze and confuse you with my fantastic tricks!" With a wink and wave of his wand Cinnamon vanished in a puff of smoke appearing outside of the ballroom.

"Ah Sir Cinnamon!" Princess cookie called out to Cinnamon, surrounded by her usual posse of guards, "I managed to catch a bit of your performance! As magical as always!" She extended her hand to give thanks and Cinnamon bowed elegantly before taking her hand.

"Thank you m'lady. I'm glad the royal procession appreciates my talents even when the rest of the court does not."

"You shouldn't let Wizard bother you Cinnamon." Pistachio spoke up shifting her spear, "Just as Knight and White Choco have their place with me beside the princess you have your place with Wizard and Alchemist by Moonlight."

"That's, very kind of you Dame Pistachio." Cinnamon lowered his head, humbled by the praise, "Oh, m'lady I have a question for you."

"Ask away!" Princess was very informal with her speech, something Knight always got flustered by.

"You're familiar with the student body at OvenBreak University right?" She nodded, "Do you know a student with pale skin and blonde hair, I used something of his for a trick and I feel I upset him."

"Pale skin, blonde hair..." Princess took a moment to think, "I'm afraid I do not. White Choco."

"Yes m'lady?" White turned to face her bowing.

"You're sister, Pink Choco attends the school correct?"

"Yes, I shall ask her about this person next time I see her, any other distinct features?"

Cinnamon took a second to think before his eyes lit up, "Yes! He had a puzzle cube and it seemed awful important to him, he panicked when I, borrowed, it for my trick."

"I shall inform Pink to keep an eye out and get back to me, m'lady, let us be on our way, we have more guests to greet." 

"You weren't done greeting guests?”

"No we are not. Though it would be impolite of me to not greet a member of the magical court before the night was over, and you're oh so busy putting on such a delightful show I didn't want to interrupt you." Princess curtsied pulling out her elegant red gown before going on  her way. 

"Cinnamon you have a phone correct?" White asked and Cinnamon cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I did..." White cocked an eyebrow at him, "I sort of, lost it, practicing a new teleportation trick." 

"For the love of Millenia... I'll send one of the knights by with a new one later, so I can contact you easier if Pink finds anything, I trust you'll be doing your own search?"

"Of course! Have a good evening White Choco." Cinnamon bowed and White shook her head and left Cinnamon alone in the entrance of the palace, "Who wouldn't want to search for someone as handsome as them. Ah no time for that Cinnamon! You have masses to entertain." 


	2. Mysterious Students Rattle Library Populace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riding this wave of debut energy I pumped out this chapter! Mostly Lemon today and seeing his interactions with a few other characters and the introductions to some important characters in Lemon's character arc. Next chapter probably won't be out as fast, or as late at night, as this one since it's going to be a lot longer than the first two. Thanks for all your support nonetheless!

 It was still the night of the party and the walk back to the dorms was mercifully quite, only so much one Lemon could put up with in a day. A charming rustic place repurposed from an old guest estate the castle never used anymore, five floors with four rooms on each made up Vanilla House with a total of 27 residents, 13 of which had single rooms and the rest had roommates. Lemon pulled open the double doors which didn't match the building at all, the old doors broke when Red Pepper decided sparing with Ninja in the common room was a good idea. The common room, as always, had a few people in it but one of today's was a rare sight, "Lemon." They called to him directly, hooray.

"Blackberry." He responded and they exchanged a short nod, as always she wore a black Gothic style gown, on account of her profession, with a red brooch on her chest. "I haven't seen Adventure if you're asking." She sighed, rather loudly.

"I doubt he would go to Princess's party. I shall see you later." Their exchanges were always brief, with a short bow she left Lemon heading out to search for her charge like always.

"Whew! Thought she'd never leave, thanks Lemon." Someone popped up from behind the counter, a well tanned man with messy blonde hair hidden by a jauntily tilted hat.

"Of course, you owe me a bag of thunder jellies." Lemon said and he sighed dramatically.

"You couldn't defer that insufferable woman out of the kindness of your heart?" He shook his head, "Oh jelly." He dug out his wallet and handed a few bills over, "That should be more than enough. If Blackberry comes back you never saw me." With as much flair as always Adventure opened up a side window and slung himself into the brush closing it behind him.

"Weirdo." He rolled his eyes and glanced at the rest of the people in the room, obviously tired of Adventure and Blackberry's constant cat and mouse antics. He didn't have a reason to talk them so he headed down the hall towards Hero's room still set on finding the parts to fix his Lemon Cube. He curled his fingers balling his hand into a fist and released it sparks of electricity crackling at his fingertips, "Still not at dangerous levels. That's good."

 

He made his way to Hero's room taking out his spare key and unlocked the door pushing it open and looked inside, all the rooms in the building were more or less the same, a bunk bed pushed against the far wall, two closets, and a desk in a small alcove in the wall. Gel-Co sat on his desk powered off, it probably knew where the parts were. Lemon shut the door behind him and approached the desk turning Gel-Co on, the green LED display lit up as it began to hover in front of him, a soft beam of light was emitted from the display running over Lemon's face, "Identity confirmed. Welcome, Lemon."

"Gel-Co, do you know where Hero has spare parts for this?" He pulled out the puzzle cube and showed it to the device and it scanned it before taking off towards one of the closets. Lemon opened the door and Gel-Co rose to the top and nudged a box, Lemon reached up and took the box down and looked inside, prototypes for the current version of the Lemon Cube, he took the box out of the closet and set it on the desk and dug through it, "This one should work..." He pulled out one of the lemon cube prototypes, one that was designed to be easier to repair but couldn't handle too much of an electric current, he pulled it apart and pulled out the core, a simple glass container like a light bulb. He searched Hero's desk for his tools and once he found them he took his current cube apart and pulled out the busted core and switched it out with the new one and put the cube back together tossing the broken core in the garbage and the prototype into the box with the rest, "That should work for now. I'd like to make one that I don't need to repair but there isn't anything that can process as much electricity as I make." He picked up the newly repaired cube and it returned to life in a glow of lights, "There we go." He tucked the cube back in his pocket and set Hero's room back in order turning Gel-Co back off and set him on the desk. With a yawn Lemon left Hero's dorm locking the door behind him, he turned his hand so his palm was facing up and looked at his watch, 10:30. Not a good time to go the bed when you had calculus in the morning, he'd spent more time out than he had originally thought he made his way back to Herb and his shared room, the door was slightly ajar meaning Herb was probably in.

Herb and Lemon had very, different, styles of living. As Dorm Adviser, Herb had an open door policy until Lemon went to bed, meaning residents could come and go as they pleased if he was around, but Lemon preferred peace and quiet for his work meaning they never spent much time in the room at the same time, "Herb." Lemon whispered opening the door, he was at the windows watering his plants, he turned back and smiled at Lemon who shut the door behind him.

"I figured since you were in Hero's room you'd be sleeping there so I thought I'd let people know I was available." Herb said setting down the old rusting watering can. Lemon eyed the can with a frown.

"Sure you don't want a new one? You could get tetanus from handling that thing. I could buy you one for your birthday, or I could rig some auto watering system if you wanted." Herb shook his head and pulled a chair away from the corner table and sat down.

"A dear friend gave that to me. Once it can't be used anymore I'll get a new one." Herb said with a shrug, "Are you going to bed?"

Lemon nodded undoing the buttons on his suit jacket, "I'm tired from going out today..."

"Yes we were out for a while even before the party. Then I'll go to bed soon, I promised Red Pepper I'd bring him something." Herb stood again and picked up a box from the desk and headed to the door, "You seem a little shaken up, are you okay?" Herb asked and Lemon took a deep breath.

"No, I'm fine, just tired, like I said." Lemon shook his head gaining a worried smile from Herb.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodnight." 

"Night." Lemon waved Herb a farewell as he left shutting the door behind him, Lemon sighed and flopped down on his bed and stared up at the bottom of the top bunk, "That magician..." He glanced at his phone he'd left on the nightstand and picked it up opening the browser, he typed in Cinnamon Magician impulsively and looked at the results, "Royal Castle staff list..." He opened the page and scrolled for a bit, "Magical court, the best mages in the kingdom work directly for the castle, Wizard Praecantatio, a direct descendant of Starlight, Moonlight's brother, the most revered wizard of all time. Alchemist and Vampire Verto, heads of the Royal Labs developing magic's use in medicine, Snow Sugar Glacies and Cream Puff Tiro, Wizards apprentices in magic, and Cinnamon Praefator despite no relation to the kingdom's history his magical talent landed him a position in the court as a voice for the common folks." That was interesting but didn't exactly tell him anything about the man, though it gave him a lead if he wanted to talk to him again for whatever reason, "Then there was that magic he did... How was he able to do something like that?" Lemon bit the inside of his cheek deep in thought, "Doesn't do any good to think about this late at night... I'll deal with it tomorrow." Lemon set his phone down and shut his eyes drifting to sleep.

 

* * *

 

First thing in the morning was Lemon's math class but he was having problems focusing, he stared idly at the professor as they gave their lecture occasionally scratching a letter for notes down, his listless state interrupt by the professor clearing their throat, "I've talked your ear off long enough, class dismissed, we'll continue where I left off tomorrow." The class immediately began to talk among themselves as they left the room. Lemon gathered his things and followed after the crowd stepping out into the hall, he didn't have a class until noon so he had a few hours off.

"Maybe I'll go see if Orange is-."

"Lemon!" He flinched at his name, he recognized that voice anywhere, he turned around to see two girls approaching him, "Lemon how nice it is to see you!" It was Lime, a mutual friend he shared with Orange, though friend was a bit generous to describe her, the other one was Grapefruit who he nodded at like normal and she nodded back.

"Lime, what are you doing here, you don't have a math class this semester."

"What? Am I not allowed to see my Orange's best friend?" Lime asked, as always she was carrying a volleyball with her though she probably just had practice this morning, she was wearing a white t-shirt with a rainbow on it and denim shorts, jorts if you would. Her long bright green hair was tied back in to twin tails with strawberry shaped pins. Grapefruit was wearing a bright pink shirt with an orange flower logo on it and tattered jeans.

Lemon shrugged and walked past her only for the two to join him, "If you want to I guess you can, you're wearing the hair pins Orange and I got you." Lime huffed but didn't respond to the comment, "Don't you two have somewhere to be?"

"Nope." Grapefruit's answer was simple, "I'm not exactly a student here remember? I just like hanging around you three."

"Class? Gah I completely forgot! Orange asked me to invite you to go eat with us for lunch, are you in or not?" Before Lemon could answer Lime took off in the opposite direction, "No okay bye!"

"And.... She's gone." Orange's friends were forces of nature that Lemon had a hard time keeping up with, "Going after her?"

"Probably." Grapefruit saluted him before taking off after Lime, despite their interactions usually being brief that was shorter than normal.

"I should still have time to-."

"Lemon~." Another voice interrupted his thoughts, he turned to face them finding Mint Choco standing there, a small crowd following behind him whispering to each other.

"Oh, Mint. How lovely it is for you to grace me with your presence." He gave a fake bow rising a laugh from Mint.

Down to earth and humble was the best way to describe Mint, famous violinist who you'd recognize anywhere with his striking mint green and white hair, "I saw you at the party last night, I was surprised to see you went, I'm assuming Orange dragged you along?"

"I had my own reasons for going, I couldn't not attend your performance." Lemon glanced at his crowd of followers, nobody he recognized, "Where's Cocoa?" 

"Ah she's..." Mint looked away, obviously not something he wanted to talk about.

"Anyways..." Lemon's eyes scanned the crowd searching for a way to change the topic, "What did you think of Rockstar's newest song?" Granted Rocker posted that two weeks ago Lemon considered it a good change, Mint's eyes lit up.

"He's done something new?! I haven't been able to listen to anything of his all month! I'll have to listen it when I get back to my dorm! Did he work with Carol on the lyrics this time I've heard they were considering collaborating full time and starting a duo but I thought it was still in the works... Ah sorry, I'm sure you haven't listened to it much." Lemon shook his head, "Not your style. I appreciate you telling me!" He glanced at the clock on the wall, "Ah right class! Pink will kill me if I'm late! I'll text you later, bye Lemon!" Mint rushed passed him followed by the crowd and Lemon sighed, relieved to finally have some quiet.

 

* * *

  

He undoubtedly missed his chance to see Orange, and going back to the dorms would be a waste of time so he took his chance to head to the library, a grand building that got excessive funding from the castle, as an extension of the royal archives the selection of books was amazing, magic students were a common sight here studying the tomes or listening to lectures from Wizard and Moonlight, when she decided to come by.  As unfamiliar as he was with parts of the library, usually tagging along when Herb needed to check out botany guides to double check how to raise something, or when Orange wanted to find an old sports magazine, Lemon was around enough for the students in charge of circulation to recognize and greet him. Though quiet there was a subtle bustle about, people were moving around, faster, as though to get out of someones way, he waved someone down trying to grab their attention for a short moment, "What's going on today?" She glanced around anxiously before leaning in to whisper.

"There's someone, odd here today, they're a student, I've seen them around before, but they're just unsettling." That was all she said before disappearing into the rows of shelves once again, great. Mysterious person or not Lemon had something he needed to look out, if he remember correctly the section he was searching for was on the second floor, up the stair case wide enough for four people to walk up or down in perfect sync that split in two different ways to separate wings of the library. Once he was upstairs he noticed a distinct lack of people compared to downstairs, meaning that the unsettling stranger was up here. 

"Ooh someones feeling brave." A wispy voice said and someone walked out from between the shelves, an attractive woman with dark skin and beautiful red eyes, long light blue with white tips that looked like the tails of an animal. A long red skirt with a floral patter at the bottom and a white top the barely covered her leaving er shoulders exposed.

"Are you the unsettling person?" She shook her head and walked past Lemon down the stairs, she was carrying books on folk lore.

"Obviously not, there's someone else up here, Pepper." Pepper? "Best be careful not to startle him, it was all I could manage to convince him to actually come out here, I'd hate for him to get scared away if your so determined to find what's up here. Bye bye Blondie."

"It's Lemon." He asserted and the woman granted him a charming smile.

"Kumiho." 

Not the strangest interaction he'd had which was surprising honestly. Shaking off the chills he had from the strange woman he made his way down the path noting the sections panels on the side dictated until when glancing down a row of shelves labeled 'Magic T-Z' he saw them, a tall man with messy black hair hunched over a book, eyes darting along the pages as he turned them, everything in Lemon said to just keep walking but what he was looking for was down this aisle so he had no just but to stop, stepping into the aisle the man glanced at Lemon but quickly returned to his frantic reading. Lemon scanned the shelves finding a tome on what he was looking for, teleportation, right next to the stranger. He grabbed the back and hazard a glance at them, they were staring at each other now, "Um, hi?"

"Hello." 

"Are you Kumiho's friend-?"

"That witch? We aren't friends, we're just, similar." As he spoke Lemon noticed his teeth, sharp like fangs. His eyes were a stunning light blue, clear like a lake, and he smelled of pepper and dogs, he was wearing a tattered grey button up under a fur cloak and his hair stood like the ears of an animal, he noted the similarities between him and the woman easily.

"Pepper?" His eyes widened.

"How did... Right, Kumiho probably told you." He paused closing his book before putting it back, "Right, humans introduce their selves, Pepper Lupine, though everyone, even Kumiho, calls me Werewolf."

"Lemon Ohm. That was a thesis on transformative curses." 

"Right, the witch suggested it. I... Lost a friend of mine because of a curse like this."

"My condolences." Their was a long pause between the two and they just stared at each other for a while.

"Welp... I should be going, there's nothing more for me here." He adjusted a bundle of books he was holding under his arm.

"Cool-." Millennia this was awkward. Pepper walked past him bumping into him.

"See ya'." He left Lemon alone again with a puzzled expression.

"That was strangely exhausting." He slumped against the shelf behind him letting out a large sigh. "Right, the book I came here for." Basics of teleportation, he couldn't get the magician's actions out of his head no matter how hard he tried, so he might as well figure out how that trick worked, he had no knowledge of magic but nothing extensive research couldn't fix. He always had a fascination with figuring out how things worked, it stemmed from his Lemon Cube, a puzzle cube that only he could solve, given to him to keep his powers in check he spent years trying to solve it until he got the amazing idea to take it apart and put it back together correctly, from there he took apart anything he could, he figured magic was the same thing based on what he knew from the formulas needed to run the Caramel Suit he could reverse engineer the process of magic and figure out how it worked even if he couldn't perform it himself. "Watch your back Cinnamon, I'll pick apart your every secret." He said to himself in a vain attempt to convince himself his only interest in the man was the tricks he performed, worried that it was much more than that.

 


	3. Magical Court gathers to discuss recent artifact discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact I've had most of this chapter written for the entirety of February but couldn't figure out how I wanted to end it so this chapter is a bit shorter than I want them to be on average, next one will hopefully be a bit a longer than normal.

"That's all of us." Wizard cleared his throat as he stood from his chair.

"There's three of us Wizard, it's not exactly hard for us to all gather on a short term notice." Alchemist said and Wizard shot her a glance before clearing his throat and summoning his staff to him, a long wooden rod adorned with a crystal that resembled a wrapped piece of candy. "Sorry sorry, we needed to gather the court?"

"Yeah, didn't we have a meeting this month already?" Cinnamon shuffled a deck of cards while he waited for Wizard to explain their purpose for gathering, "Unless any of us have caused some sort of disturbance I don't think there's any urgent need to gather."

"The Emperor ordered us to gather." Alchemist and Cookie immediately sat up after that. "He's asked us to discuss something important. I'm sure, at least Alchemist, is aware of a recent discovery a certain archaeologist made."

"The forbidden manuscript correct?" Cinnamon interjected.

"How did-?"

Cinnamon scoffed, "I have my sources Wizard. The staff of darkness, cursed goblet, forbidden manuscript, and mirror of malice. Relics of the Dark Enchantress Millennia sealed away all those years ago." 

"The mirror and goblet are in the castle vaults under Emperor Stardust's orders. That cult that's so enamored with the Enchantress were given her staff by the last emperor, and the manuscripts were just recently excavated." Alchemist added and Wizard sighed.

"A mistake my father and I regret deeply, giving those, weirdos, all that magic." He adjusted his scarf to hide his face more, "That aside, we need to talk about the types of spells found in those manuscripts."

"Dark magic right?" Cinnamon added flipping a card around and switching it with another, "Nobody's allowed to practice dark magic apart from us, even though none of us do." 

"I perform Alcehmic magic, Wizard is a talented ice mage, and you." Cinnamon twirled his card causing it to disappear, "Use things like Teleportation."

"Then there's people at the school, most of my students are ice mages." He shook his head, "That's not important, it's not entirely just dark magic. I managed to acquire those manuscripts." Wizard produced a tattered bundle of papers from his robes.

"Ooh fancy! Let's see 'em Wizard!"

"Just don't make them disappear into your hat." Wizard set the papers on the table and the three gathered around them.

"This first ones ice magic. That's your scene Wizard." Cinnamon wasn't the best at reading magic scripts but he recognized the basic styles Snow Sugar and Wizard used and could at least tell it used Ice as a base.

"I haven't taken the time to decipher the formulas in here, they must be forbidden for a reason." Wizard crossed his arms and tapped his foot, "The writing is so ancient I can barely read it.” 

“Why don’t we ask Moonlight to translate it. She was alive when they used this script style.” Alchemist suggested adjusting her glasses not taking her eyes off the papers.

”Then why did the emperor ask us to do it? Moonlight can definetly read it so why didn’t he just ask her to read them?”

”We have all authority on what kind of magic counts as taboo. Meaning we need to know what kind of magic this is and if it should be forbidden or not. The best way to learn is to try it then, right?” Wizard gestured for Alchemist and Cinnamon to step back and held his staff over the scripts and a magic circle formed between them.

”Do you have an incantation?”

”None is specified so I’m sure my generic ones will work.” He raised his staff and cast it out, “Abra-Cookie-Cadabra!” With those words the room suddenly got cold, so cold Cinnamon could see his breath, but not much else.

Alchemist scoffed, “That’s all this did? Make it cold? Let me see that-!” Alchemist fell forward when she took a step, Cinnamon grabbed her arm and looked down, the floor under them was frozen solid.

”Now you see us...” Cinnamon took a deep breath and focused on the table and soon he an Alchemist were sitting on the table, “Now you don’t.”

”I see, I see...” Wizard scanned the script eagerly now, “This part concentrates on moisture in the air... Then this part...” He lifted his staff again, “Hocus-Party-Pocus!” He waved his staff and dropped his height an inch. “Fascinating! This spell shifts the state of water! It condenses moisture in the air and then freezes it against the largest surface area available, doing it again reverts it to water!” 

“Really interesting Wizard but now it’s drier than a desert in here now.”

”Well it does take moisture from the air... It only froze the area beneath us though... I wonder how it would work in the rain.” 

“That’s nice and all but let’s see what else is here.” Cinnamon took the papers from Wizard who reached for them back. “Just a second Wizard, then you can get out this ice magic all you want.” He handed them to Alchemist who skimmed through them.

”Most of these use basic dark formulas, but I can’t actually read what they do.” She sighed, “My brother may be able to read them, if he actually remember’s who he is today.”

”Then I’ll head to the archives and try to decipher them, it’s better than mulling around here.” Wizard took the papers back and tucked them into his robe, “Just leave it to me, I’ll decipher these papers or my name isn’t Wizard Praecantatio!” There was a brief chime interrupting Wizards deceleration.

”Oh sorry that’s my phone.” Cinnamon pulled out the new phone White Choco had given him, there was a single message from her. "Oh! Pink wants to talk with me."

 

* * *

 

Cinnamon had never really spent much time at OBU so he didn't know the campus, he occasionally stopped by to put on shows at the cafe on campus or harass his friends during classes but that never required actually trying to find a location, "Student Union... Student Union..." He could just ask someone, there were plenty of people around walking between buildings heading to and from class and he wasn't inclined to bother anyone and make them late unless he already knew them. "Are you lost?" A sudden voice asked and he looked around finding someone at his feet, they couldn't have been much older than 8, wearing footie pajamas designed after a flying squirrel. 

"I'm afraid I am, but what about you?" Cinnamon was always sympathetic to the plight of children, but this child shook his head.

"I'm not lost! My brother and Mr. Herb let me hang out with them all the time!" Brother, his brother must be another student here, but he looked around and couldn't find anyone resembling the child, with his white hair poking out from his hood like whipped cream, "But, I got distracted and separated from my brother, he must be off playing without me." Cinnamon crouched down so he was at eye level with child.

"Well then I'll help you find your brother, then you and him can help me find where I'm looking for okay? My name's Cinnamon, what's yours?"

"I'm Pancake! Oh and my brother's Roll Cake!" 

After the two set out looking for Roll Cake Cinnamon was immediately aware of this kids boundless energy, asking all sorts of questions about him, "Why is your hair so orange? Why do you have so many cards? Can we stop for snacks?" Cinnamon briefly considered the idea that Roll Cake may have ditched Pancake in favor of peace and quiet, "Your clothes are so fancy!"

Cinnamon snapped out of his daze briefly, "Oh thank you. I was working earlier and hadn't gotten a chance to change." 

"What do you do for work? My brother drives those big vehicles with one giant wheel!" 

"I'm a magician." A claim Cinnamon would soon regret as Pancake's eyes lit up.

"You do magic? Like Cream Puff! Show me some magic!" He was a friend of Wizard's apprentice? He hadn't heard Cream Puff ever mention someone named Pancake.

"Well maybe just a bit..." Cinnamon beamed and leaped back and brought his wand and hat to his side, "Come one come all to Cinnamon's impromptu magic show!" If he was going to show a few tricks to Pancake might as well go all out, "I'll start you out with something simple, an easy card game such as... 52 Pickup?" He tapped the rim of his hat and an entire deck of cards shout out into the air, "Ah though that games causes such a mess..." He pointed his wand at the cards and with a wave they gathered into his hand. 

"Whoa!" Pancake's eyes lit up as he watched in awe, a few students who lingered outside, probably ones who didn't have class yet, started to gather around them, maybe Pink would hear of the commotion and come to him, or better yet, the person he was looking for in the first place. 

"That was an easy trick let's try something a little more, interesting." With a wink, a smile, and a wave of his wand the end turned into a bouquet of marigolds, "Hmm too cliche?" He dismissed the flowers and tapped the wand against his head, he needed something to really dazzle, "For this next trick I need a volunteer." 

"Oh my friend will do it!" Suddenly someone was pushed forward, an unwilling volunteer.

"Perfect! Now then..." He scanned the surroundings before he spotted his target, "I'll send this person somewhere else." He hadn't had much practice switching the place of two things but experience was the best practice, "Now you see them..." He waved his wand and set his hat on top of them, "Now you don't!" Suddenly the 'volunteer' was replaced with someone else who took a step forward before noticing they weren't where they had thought. The crowd erupted with cheers and applause, Cinnamon bowed basking in the praise, “Thank you, thank you, you’re too kind.” He glanced at Pancake who was watching him with beaming eyes, Cinnamon glanced at the crowd of people not finding either of the people they were looking for, “That’s it for now though. I have shows in town all the time, keep an eye out, until then.” He bowed again and started back on his way and Pancake hurried after him.

”That was amazing Mr. Cinnamon!”

"Yes quite amazing indeed Cinnamon."

"Pink Choco, glad you found me, now I don't have to look for you." Cinnamon sighed in relief at the sight of the person he was searching for.

"Pink!" Pancake cheered and ran towards her embracing her legs.

"Pancake! Where's your brother?"

"Lost, we're looking for him."

"Are you now? Well then, may I join you in your search? We can discuss our business on the way Cinnamon." 

"Yes that's fine with me," Cinnamon said before glancing at pancake once again, "You haven't, seen Rollcake have you?"

"Afraid not, he may be in class, let's head to the engineering building, and stop by the store for some Jellies." 

"Jellies!" Pancake cheered and took off past Pink.

She giggled as she watched the child run down the path garnering attention from baffled students, "C'mon Cinnamon, let's not keep him waiting!" She took his hand and pulled him along with her in pursuit of their charge.

 

* * *

 

 

The store was on the basement floor of the student union, full of paraphernalia for the school with required text books tucked away in a corner behind a practical curtain of pennants, general school supplies littered shelves here and there ranging from notebooks to wooden anatomy figures for art classes, "I'll buy the jellies, what do you two want?" Pink called perusing the wall of candies.

"Acorn!" Pancake answered spreading the wings of his costume in excitement, "What do you want Cinnamon?"

"Oh I'm more into marshmallow bunnies than jellies-."

"Marshmallow huh?" Pink asked as she scanned the shelf, "About that student you were asking about. Blonde, has a puzzle cube?" 

"Yes! I want to apologize, so if you know who he is..."

"Well, I don't know him directly,  I think his name is Lemon..."

"Oh Mr. Lemon! He's friends with Mr. Herb!" Pancake waved his arms in excitement, "Why are you looking for Mr. Lemon? He's just a sour puss." 

"I fear I may have upset him somehow and wanted to apologize for my behavior." Cinnamon sighed toying with the hem of his cape.

"That may be a problem, he isn't the most social cookie in the jar. He has a few friends from what I know, Herb being one of them, the others are... Orange and..."

Cinnamon glanced at a picture frame they had on the counter, a signed picture of Captain Caramel, "Captain Caramel? The two seemed to be having a rather casual conversation before I interrupted them. Would that mean Captain Caramel goes to OBU?"

"No one knows who he is though, not even me and we've fought together on multiple occasions." 

"How could I forget, Chocolate Love, a hero of justice on the same level of Captain Caramel, though you're less secretive about your job." 

"My Love Virus only diffuses conflicts, I don't fight giant robots and Super Villains like Captain Caramel does." Pink crossed her arms and Cinnamon shrugged, "If Pancake is friends with Herb then maybe he'd be better suited to helping you finding Lemon than I am." She stepped up to the counter and paid for their candies and distributed among the other two, "Pancake can you tell us more about Lemon?"

"Hmm... He spends most of his time in his room, I've been there with Mr. Herb and my brother before... While I was waiting he let me play with that fancy toy of his!"

"The puzzle cube? He seemed rather upset when I took it though, but he let you play with it..." Cinnamon crossed his arms trying to judge why that was, "Could it be..." 

"Mail call!" A girl ran into the store, she was shorter than the two of them with bright pink fluffy hair like bundles of cotton candy, "I have a letter for you Pink Choco!"

"Cotton Candy! You're just the person I wanted to see." Pink took the letter from her and read the back of it before tucking it in her vest, "Have you seen Roll Cake by chance?"

"Roll Cake... Yup! I delivered a letter to him just before you, he's probably still in the union, I think he was with Kiwi and Rockstar. Now if you'll excuse me I have more mail to deliver. Goodbye Pink, bye Pancake, bye, stranger." Cotton Candy waved at them before taking off again shuffling the letters in her hands.

"She's certainly energetic." Cinnamon commented and Pink sighed dreamily.

"Certainly is, working hard to deliver letters of all kinds, a true ally of love the postal service is. Ah right Roll Cake! If she's going that way she came from... Upstairs!" But before she could finish Pancake already took off heading out of the store and down the hall opposite of where Cotton Candy was heading, "Ah Pancake! Don't run off with out us! C'mon Cinnamon!"

"A-ah right!"

 

The two followed after Pancake with all haste chasing him upstairs to the main floor of the union, in the center of the room Pancake was with a group of three others, "Jeez Pancake, there you are, I've been looking for you everywhere." One of them said and Pancake pouted.

"Nuh uh, you were the one who was lost." The child asserted and his brother sighed.

"There you are Pancake, and you found Roll Cake." Pink said as the two approached the group.

"Were you two with Pancake? Thanks for looking after him, I hope he didn't cause you any trouble." Roll Cake said and the two nodded.

"No problem. He was an angel." Cinnamon said, he suddenly felt relived knowing he didn't have to put up with the child's boundless energy.

"Thanks again, uh..."

"Pink Chocolate, the lesser known sibling of the Chocolate family." 

"Oh so your Mint's sister!" A man with shoulder length white hair carrying a guitar case asked and she sighed, Cinnamon assumed this was Rockstar making the other one, with his kiwi green hair, Kiwi.

"Cinnamon Praefator, member of the Magical Court nice to make your acquaintance." He bowed after the standard royal greeting.

"Oh you were at the Princess party last night, I saw you performing tricks for the party goers." Rockstar said and Cinnamon nodded.

"Speaking of which, do any of you know where I can find a Mr. Lemon?"

"Oh, Mint's friend?"

"Eh?" Pink narrowed her eyes, "Mint knows Lemon?"

"Yeah, he's friends with him, Herb, and I think her name is Orange." Rockstar explained and the two sighed, "He lives in Vanilla house, there's a sign just outside the union pointing to it, can't miss it."

"You mean I had to easier sources to find him than by asking Pink?" Cinnamon dropped his shoulders, "Man... Thanks for helping anyway Pink."

"No problem. I'm meeting up with Mint in a bit, I'll have to give him a piece of my mind." 

"C'mon Pancake, let's go get lunch." Roll Cake took his brothers hand and the group headed off followed by Pink shortly after.

"Now then... Let's find this Vanilla House."

 

* * *

 

 

Just as Rockstar said there were signs all over that pointed to the dorms, he followed the path to Vanilla House and stood before the entrance, "What's the proper protocol for entering a dorm building that you don't live in... Do I just go in? Do I knock?"

"Oh hello there, are you looking for something?" A young man stepped up next to Cinnamon, he had green hair that was neatly kept like leaves jutting from the top of his head.

"Oh I'm looking for a Lemon."

"Oh, you must mean my roommate, I'm Herb."

"Cinnamon." They shook hands and Herb stepped up to the door.

"Come in come in." Herb opened the door and they stepped inside, the inside of the building was oddly quiet, Cinnamon always heard dorms were breeding grounds for parties, then again it was the middle of the day so many not party time. "I'm Dorm Adviser for Vanilla House." He suddenly spoke up and Cinnamon focused his attention to what he was saying, "I don't believe I've seen you around before, what are you majoring in?"

"Oh I'm, not a student. I'm a part of the Magical Court for the castle, I'm kind of set for life."

"I thought your name was familiar, I think I've seen it on the castle staff list."

"I'd be there along with Wizard and his apprentices, Alchemist and her brother too." 

"So what's a fancy noblemen like yourself doing looking for my roommate?"

"I wanted to apologize to him for my behavior at the party last night, I upset him without meaning too and I feel bad." Herb gave a soft smile.

"How nice of you, I'll see if Lemon's in... Oh, I suppose not." Herb stopped in front of a door with a note on it, "He went to the library between classes and is going to lunch with some friends of his, you missed him for today, he won't be back until nine."

"Nine?" It was around 11 now, "Yeah no, I'll come back another day, thank you for your time." Cinnamon bowed and turned to leave.

"Oh before you do, let's exchange numbers, and I can  give you Lemon's too, so you can text him and tell him you want to meet, I'll let him know when he get's back so try texting him tomorrow." Cinnamon and Herb traded phones briefly, "There we go, I hope you get the chance to apologize. Have a nice day Mr. Praefator."

"Yes you too," Cinnamon hesitated, his last name was in his contact list so that's how Herb knew it but Herb didn't have a last name listed, "I shouldn't intrude any longer, goodbye." Cinnamon hurried out of the dorm house and crossed his arms in confusion, "Odd, most people have their last name registered on their phone, what's his story..." A chime interrupted his train of thought, it was a text from his roommate, "Oh right White put in all the contacts she asked me for, and I only had Whipped's."

 

_Cinnamon, you've been out for an awful long time.-W_

 

_Sorry I had some errands to run-C_

 

_It's not problem, you weren't home when I got back so I was worried. How's the new phone treating you?-W_

_Fine, it's been a while since I destroyed my last one-C_

_And that's why we don't practice Teleportation magic by bodies of water.- W_

 

"It was one time, let it go." Cinnamon said aloud rolling his eyes.

 

_Whatever, I'll be home soon-C_

 

_Sure sure.-W_

 

"Whipped's such a worrier, though he's always been like that now hasn't he..." Cinnamon and Whipped Cream we're childhood friends who shared a love of entertaining people, with Whipped's elegant ballet and Cinnamon's teleportation tricks they put on dazzling performances together for their neighborhood for years to come. When Cinnamon gained his position in the Magical Court and was granted an apartment in the royal suites at the castle he made sure to invite Whipped to stay with him just as they planned to when they were small, "Well lucky for him I'm just at the university, and I'm close enough, maybe I'll grab some lunch before I go back." Cinnamon suggested the idea to Whipped who responded in agreement, "Lemon huh... I'd like to apologize in person, but what's the best way to approach this... Hi my names Cinnamon I'm the magician who harassed you at the party? Hello my name is Cinnamon Praefator, a member of the magical court, the magician you met at the party? Or maybe..." With a sudden thud Cinnamon fell on his rear and winced as he landed, "Jeez I'm sorry-."

"No, I wasn't looking where I was..." The two made eye contact as they recovered from the collision and Cinnamon immediately recognized the blonde locks of the sudden road block and felt the words bubble in his throat before blurting out...

"It's you!" 


	4. Whipped Cream to hold dance recital with Mint Choco

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I accidentally posted my Ultra rough draft of this chapter earlier, whoops. So you may have already read the beginning of this chapter. Then got writers block for three months so this has been a long time coming-

Cinnamon wasn’t prepared for this conversation. After their synchronized outburst they just stared at each other for a while, the man Cinnamon now knew as Lemon blinked quickly as though convincing himself he was just an illusion. He took a deep breath and tried to adopt the aloof confidence Wizard had when addressing the Emperor, he let his shoulders relax and lowered his gaze to avoid his startling yet stunning yellow eyes, he idly toyed with his hair that dropped in front of his eye, “You’re Lemon, right?” 

“Y-yeah how did...” He glanced at the building behind Cinnamon, “Herb. Yes, I’m Lemon Ohm-.” He awkwardly extended his hand.

”Cinnamon Praefator, member of the magical court.” He took his hand and they shook, still on their knees recovering from the collision. Cinnamon glanced at a small pile of books between them, all magical texts on teleportation, “Were you interested in that trick?”

”Oh um.. Yeah, I’m a man of science so I’m always curious to figuring out how magic works.” He felt as though there were more to his words than that but he didn’t need to ask about it, he stood up and brushed himself off, “If you’ll excuse me I’m just here to drop off my books and then head to lunch, see you.”

”Oh sure- wait! I wanted,” He took another deep breath, “I wanted to apologize. I clearly upset you with that trick and taking your puzzle cube, I’m sorry.” 

“Well you should be, it’s danger-.” He cut himself off, “It means a lot to me, so I freaked out when you took it. Just, ask before borrowing something as a prop, or prepare your own.”

”But that isn’t how magic shows work. If I ask to borrow something or use a prepared object it looks as though it’s planned, my magic tricks are no mere, well tricks, this is genuine magic.”

”Genuine magic...” Lemon repeated and looked off behind him, “I have a way you can make it up to me.”

”Really?!” Cinnamon brightened at the prospect of being able to repay him, “Oh uh,” he quickly adopted the borrowed demeanor again, “If it isn’t anything too hard I can consider doing it.”

”I want you and your court to help me with a new research project I’m starting. See I’m in electrical engineering and I’ve been trying to figure out away to incorporate magic in a dampener.”

”Dampener?”

”Yes, something to dampen the voltage of an electrical current, and contain it or project it at the will of the user.” Cinnamon nodded thoughtfully, though he didn’t understand a word Lemon said.

”Well, the court isn’t the best option for magical help, Wizard uses Ice, Vampire and Alchemist use alchemy, and I use teleportation, none of us lighting magic.”

”That’s fine, I have a ‘lighting mage’, he’s just, unversed in using his magic.” Lemon adjusted the headphones around his neck and Cinnamon caught on.

”Of course I’ll help you! I’m an expert at redirection! Your roommate has my number so just send me a message any time and I’ll help you, schedule allowing of course.” Cinnamon glanced at his phone, another text from Whipped, “I should be going now. Take care, and I’m sorry, again.”

”Don’t worry about it.” Though he didn’t exactly sound ‘okay’ with Cinnamon’s apology which made him pout, “I’ll be in touch. Goodbye.” With that rather discourteous farewell Cinnamon was left alone outside the dorm. 

“What a rude person.” Cinnamon scoffed, his face was hot but he couldn’t tell if it was anger or something else, he had found him decent looking at the party but now that he got to be up close for more than a few seconds ones he found him much more than decent with way the sun caught his hair making it look like it flowed with electricity, the soft honey smoothness of his voice, and his rather ‘shocking’ eyes Lemon was an apt name for one so sour but even more so in how he looked. 

Cinnamon made his way back to the apartment and waited at the door as Whipped leaped across the living room into a pirouette. “Ah Cinnamon, how nice it is to see you.” His breathing was heavy, he had to have been practicing while Cinnamon was out only taking a brief break to text him sweat plastered his long Cream hair to his forehead his soft pink eyes glowing.

”Hello Whipped, Sorry my errands ended up taking a bit longer than I originally expected.” Whipped picked up his water bottle of the counter and took a swig.

”Don’t worry about it, just meant I could practice my routine for a bit longer. Speaking of which here.” He handed Cinnamon a laminated card.

”Whipped Cream at the Millennial Theater, a Dance recital accompanied by the musical styling of Mint Choco, Rockstar, and Cocoa.” Cinnamon read off the ticket, a very exclusive ticket, box seats at that, “Your next performance has a very all-star feeling to it.” Despite all of them being college students Cinnamon knew the theater would be sold out with all four of their fans, and Cinnamon was lucky enough to have the best seat in the house for free, “But what about the other seat.”

”I’ll give it to you to give to one of your friends, Wizard maybe.”

”Wizard and I aren’t friends we’re rivals.” He glanced to the side, “Could I get a six pack of tickets.”

”Of course, you’ll have to pay for them though, what for?”

”I wanted to give them to someone as an apology, I’m sure they’ll appreciate them.” Though he’d have to ask Herb first if they already had plans to attend it.

”Cinnamon, you look distracted, is something wrong?”

”Oh, no nothings wrong, I was just thinking about someone I met recently. Whipped when you,” Cinnamon hesitated considering how Whipped would react to this, “When you, met, you know,” He gestured vaguely and Whipped nodded, “How did you know- that.”

”How did I know I was in love?” Whipped sighed and slumped on the coffee table and peeled off his sweaty tank top and tossed it to the side, Whipped was always in good shape, constant practice kept him lean and fit. “Well it’s hard to say, all of us feel love differently, we all perceive it differently too.” He picked up a remote off the table and pointed it to the side and pressed the button and music began to play, here we go.

He skipped from song to song as Cinnamon sat down on the couch and watched Whipped as he shuffled songs, “Dance of the forlorn wanderer, movement one.” Whipped began to dance  and Cinnamon zoned out focusing on the motion of Whipped rather than any moves he was doing like he always did when watching Whipped’s performances.

This was always a sad piece and you could tell from the look of sorrow plastered to Whipped’s face as he moved lunging across the floor slowing to a stop like a fairy gliding across the water so graceful and elegantly, before either of them realized the dance was over and Whipped was once again wiping sweat from his brow, “That’s about it, that's how I felt.”

Very helpful, “It was lovely,” Cinnamon said shifting his shoulders to drop the now highly chaffing cape, “Though I wish there was a way to just tell if I was in love.”

”Why not use some of the magic of yours? I’m sure there’s a spell like that.”

”Oh Whipped, magic isn’t something that simple,” Cinnamon produced his spell book and flipped it open the pages glowing dimly with an ethereal light, “If a spell like that really existed it would defiantly be a hoa- oh... What do you know.” Whipped grinned coyly, “Though it isn’t exactly the same...” He slid his wand from his sleeve and pressed the white tip to the page.

”Then what is it?” Whipped peered over his shoulder and sighed.

”It’s more of a, Mood Ring? My wand will change color depending on my mood.”

”So?”

”Mood Rings are magic, it’s hoax magic though, they just recognize heat signatures in the body and change in response to that. Of course it’ll be red or pink when your mad or in love as your body is warmer.” Cinnamon traces the runes deciphering the formulas in his head, “Hmm...”

”All this magic is confusing, but if it weren’t for that we wouldn’t have this apartment, I’ll go shower and leave you to play with your spells.” Whipped ruffled his hair and he furrowed his brow.

”Don’t do that,” He said, “Messes with my concentration.”

Whipped shrugged and walked off disappearing around a corner leaving Cinnamon hunched over the spell book. It was true it was a very nice apartment, two master bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms, and the living room dining room and kitchen were all the same room. Cinnamon shut the book and set his wand on it leaning back and flicked on the TV, whatever the current channel was, was showing an old Noir film staring ‘modernized’ versions of the Legends.

 

 _”Wind-.”_ Millennia, at least Cinnamon assumes it was Millennia as Wind Archer only allowed his master to be informal with him, _”Did you follow up with them like I requested?”_  He was played by some debonair man with short hair.

”That isn’t even close to what Millennia looks like-.” Cinnamon complained, he had seen portraits of Millennia, the castle was full of them, Emperor Stardust loved Millennia and ordered all the accurate portraits of him to be kept in the castle, Princess was nice enough to show the Magical Court.

The front door opened and some stepped in shutting it behind him, it was Wizard, wasn’t uncommon for him to forget which apartment was his and wander into one of theirs by mistake. He was covered in flecks of ice and slumped down on the couch next to Cinnamon, “Testing those dark magic spells?” 

“Yes.”

”Go bad?”

He blew a snowflake off his nose and set his hat down his on the floor next to him letting his long white hair flow down, “Very. What are you watching?”

”Uh..." He pulled up the TV guide to check, "Dragon Enchantress. Some old noir detective movie. That’s Millennia and Wind Archer.” 

“I see...” Wizard redirected his attention to Cinnamon, "About those spells by the way, a lot of the dark magic in it is just reworked to be dark magic."

"Reworked? That's odd..." Then an idea came to him, "Did any of them have anything to do with lightning magic?"

"Maybe- I only focused on those ice spells, I'll double check once I go back to the council room. I just came back to get a fresh set of clothes."

"Well you aren't in the right apartment."

"I'm aware of that now." Wizard stole a glance back at the TV, "Dragon Enchantress was it? This was originally a fairy tale about how Knight’s ancestor cut off the original Dragon Queen’s tail, adapted to a murder mystery novel. I was unaware it had a movie.”

"You know it?" Granted Cinnamon didn't know what exactly the movie was since he had just learned it’s name, but he chose to assume Wizard was right.

"A friend of mine is a film buff, this is one of her favorites," He said before his gaze drifted to the hall over the half-wall, "Is Whipped home?" 

"Yeah he's in the shower." Wizard's face reddened and he turned back to the TV feigning interest, "Why did you need to see him? We already have tickets set aside for the council if that's what-."

"No, no it's nothing. I just heard water running so I was curious."

"You like him."

"Eh? N-no I don't." Cinnamon chuckled a bit, "What makes you say that?" 

”I may be oblivious to most affairs of my own heart but your too obvious with yours.” Obvious, was a good word to describe Wizard, the way he spoke the way he moved his wand the way he presented himself, it was all obvious. “Hmm...”

”I take it that means something’s bothering you?” Wizard asked finally taking the time to brush the ice frosted to his face off and rubbed his cool skin, that same warm tan without even a hint of frostbite.

”Possibly, I met with the man I upset at the party.”

”What’s he like?”

”Frustrating? He’s very passive but direct, he said he didn’t care but that wasn’t the case, then he told me exactly what he needed me to know about how I can repay him, conveniently leaving his own magic out of the explanation.”

”He’s magic too?” Wizard sat up and took out his phone, “What’s his name?”

”Lemon Ohm.” Wizard typed the name into his phone and pursed his lips.

”He’s not in our database. Are you sure, what did he feel like?” Feeling was a big part of telling what kind of magic someone used, Wizard and Snow Sugar felt cold, either of them walking by was like a breeze carrying the fluttering of snow, Vampire and Alchemist felt like pure tension, the verge of something happening, Moonlight was radiant, she practically smelled like magic, bright like a Star, and Cinnamon, according to Wizard, was hard to feel, it’s there then it’s not, then it’s somewhere else entirely.

”Simply put, when we shook hands,” he showed him his glove revealing a small singe in the center of his palm, “Shocking.”

 

* * *

 

 Lemon couldn’t focus the rest of the day after seeing that stupid magicians face, “Apology my ass...” He tapped his finger against the table and took his straw into his mouth, The Citrus Gang, as Orange has lovingly named their group after their names, had opted for dinner instead since lunch was impossible.

”Lemon, your soda was empty two minutes ago.” Orange put a hand on his arm and he sighed.

”I know.” 

“Then stop it! It’s annoying!” Lime glared at him from across the table and he glared back, this time her twin tails were held up by watermelon pins.

”Oh come on you two don’t fight!” Orange extended over the table to grab both their hands, “For me?”

Orange’s words had ways of melting the two sour’s hearts, “Fine...” They groaned together and their mutual friend beamed leaning back in her seat.

”So you met with that magician.” Grapefruit started surprising the three of them.

”Oh, yeah. Jeez that guy he’s so insincere, first he steals my puzzle cube then he gives this half-assed apology about it! The only good thing to come out of this is he’s offered to help me with my project.”

”Oh your Lemon Cube upgrade?” Orange asked and he nodded, “Have you finally perfected it?”

”Maybe- the magicians help is key, I need to finish reading these books about magic I got-.” Then the books reminded him, “Do you two know Kumiho and Werewolf, or well, Pepper?”

”Pepper...? Oh yeah he’s in my psychology class.” Lime stirred her drink, “He never shows up though, why’d you call him Werewolf?”

”That’s what his friend called him. He was researching something on transformation magic, apparently they’re students but I’ve never seen them, I guess you confirm that they are if he’s in your psychology.”

”Then who’s this Kumiho?” Orange asked and Lemon shrugged.

”She didn’t give me her actual name, it may be Kumiho, I could be something else like Werewolf. Strange students, they threw off the entire flow of the library just by being there.”

”Oh I think I’ve met her! Long light blue hair white tips?” Grapefruit asked and Lemon nodded, “Yeah I’ve seen her around! I think she works at the daycare in town, lots of little kids seem to know her.”

”Creep alert.” Lime joked, “What kind of college student works day care as a part time job?”

”People minoring in child care.” Orange pointed out, “Which means she’s probably majoring in basic medicine to get into med school or maybe education. Maybe you should ask her?”

”Why’s that?” 

“You’re friends aren’t you?”

”Not particularly, we just ran into each other. I’d never met, let alone seen, them before...” Lemon tapped the table idly, “They’re book selections were odd. Folklore and Transformative Curses.”

”Ugh magic,” Lime scoffed, “Mages are nothing but trouble.”

”And you think your the expert on that?” He cocked and eyebrow and Lime shrugged.

”Fair enough, oh yeah! My Orange, mom’s offered to let me use the beach house over break.”

“Next week _i_ _s_  Holy Moon Remembrance week.”

“Mint’s performance with that dancer is during next week,” Lemon brought up, “Orange and I can’t go.”

”Oh yeah, how many tickets did you two get?”

”I got enough for me, Herb, and Hero.”

”I have enough for myself, Lime, and someone else since Grapefruit doesn’t want to go,” Orange said, “A beach trip is more traditional for Sea Fairy’s Eve. We should go then instead. It’ll be fun, we can have a barbecue, play volleyball and tennis, and even do fireworks!”

”It’ll be super fun Orange!” The two locked hands over the table and Lemon rolled his eyes.

”Pass, I’ll be using the peace and quite to work.”

”But Lemon!” Orange whined and leaned into hug him but he pushed her away.

”Castle Staff also get breaks during Sea Fairy’s Eve and Holy Moon Remembrance so I need the breaks to work with that magician.” 

“Oh no...” Lime deadpanned smirking at Lemon, “Guess it’ll be just me and my-.”

”We should invite Carol and Cocoa! It’ll be a girls weekend! Does that sound fun Lime?” Her boundless enthusiasm found its way back to Lime who’s face reddened.

”Y-Yeah super fun.” 

“Speaking Of Which do any of you know why we celebrate Holy Moon?”

”You got me there- it’s not really celebrated outside the capital.” Orange said, the six of them, including Herb and Hero, weren’t from the capital of Cremeheart, they were from Sugar Star out in the country, “But hey it’s a week-long break from school so I’ll take it!”

“But don’t you think we should know why it’s celebrated?” Lemon asked this question every year they were in the capital around this time already knowing the response.

”If you want to know look it up Mr. Scientist.” Lime retorted, exactly in his expectations.

”Fair enough, c’mon let’s go. I know Orange has a test to study for.”

”B-But Lemon!”

”No buts, if your grades are bad I’m not going on any break trips at all.” 

“Ah jeez!” Orange hurriedly pulled her wallet out and set out what she owed for dinner, “Gotta go study, see you later Lemon!” And she was off like a flash followed by Grapefruit and Lime who paid just as fast to follow after her.

“An awfully lively bunch you are.” The waitress said watching Lemon father the money into the bill fold. She was familiar, he recognized her from somewhere but couldn’t tell, her bright red hair and the gem in her forehead, probably from a thin circlet she was wearing, pale face, and quiet expression. 

“Apologies if they were disturbing the peace...” Odd, she wasn’t wearing a name tag. She took the bill without another word and left Lemon alone at the table, he shivered and grabbed his cube in his jacket, “Creepy girl...”

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure it'll work? None of us are experienced with lightning magic." 

”Let’s just ask Moonlight for her council on this.” Wizard said to quiet them as they entered Moonlight’s wing in the palace, they were on their way to pay respects to the Grand Mage before Holy Moon when the castle would be crowded with people coming to do just the same, though they wouldn’t get to do it in person.

"We're quite lucky, aren't we?" Cinnamon asked glancing at the stain glass windows that lined the hall to Moonlight's chambers, mosaics that depicted scenes from the Holy Moon War that took place over thousands of years ago, Moonlight clashing magic with Dark Enchantress, Wind Archer and Milk facing off against Yam, Millennia's sacrifice... Cinnamon stopped in his tracks with a forlorn sigh, "Why do people fight... Why do people feel, angry?" 

"Cinnamon, we don't have time for you to wax poetic." Wizard said tapping his staff on the grand, "Come on help me open the door."

"Yeah yeah." Cinnamon shook off Wizard's aggression and stepped up to the grand doors at the end of the hall, adorned with beautiful jewels and runes meant to stave of all sorts of magicks, except for theirs of course, Cinnamon didn't need a wand but it was a formality so he pulled his out of his hat, the simple black rod with a white tip, the staple of a magician. 

"You two ready?" Alchemist asked tossing her flask in the air and catching it.

"Always." Cinnamon held out his wand like a conductor and Wizard tapped the ground with his staff, lines in the floor glowing to life with the touch and spreading up to the door illuminating the hall. Cinnamon and Alchemist stepped forward and waved their vessels to the door before pointing at it again as Wizard raised his staff and stabbed it at the ground.

"Open Sesame!" With that incantation the doors cracked open and slowly swung outward.

"That's such a simple spell." Vampire said twirling his wine glass, "But an ingenious defense, only the three of you can open the door." 

"Isn't it, my father designed it and I put the finishing touches on it." Wizard declared proudly and Cinnamon rolled his eyes.

"Alchemist and I helped too you know, but sure you finished it." He said and his rival glared at him.

"Hey you two, no fighting in front of The Grand Mage, or the kids. And you, you insufferable lush, no drinking in the Lunitorium." Alchemist said and her brother sighed and downed his glass, "Not what I wanted but that'll work for now. Wizard."

He stood at attention with a nod, "I know. Snow Sugar, Cream Puff, this is your first time paying your respects to our Lady Moonlight in person, you remember your manners."

"Yes sir!" The two chimed together and pulled their wands closer to themselves. 

"Let's head in."

And so they did, passing through the grand double doors they ascended up the staircase into the main room of the Lunitorium, a grand room that was the mixture of a bedroom and an observatory. The ceiling painted with a perfect recreation of the night sky, a large canopy bed was pressed against one wall under a loft that was reachable by ladder, the loft was full of scattered books and the shelves where they belonged looked wanting for their tenants. On the other end of the room was a balcony with a telescope constantly aimed at the sky The six mages approached the bed and set their magic vessels on the ground and knelt before it, "Our Lady Moonlight, your humble children beseech thee." 

"You may rise." The silvery voice came from past the canopy and the six stood and Wizard stepped forward to spread the curtain out, sitting on the bed was the Grand Mage herself, Moonlight. Her long black hair that mirrored the night sky flowed down and splayed on the bed, the midnight blue night gown was ruffled and wrinkled showing she had just been asleep, she yawned and rubbed her murky purple eyes and offered them a soft smile.

Wizard turned to face her and bowed, "Thank you, my lady Moonlight." He stepped away and Alchemist stepped up next and repeated this process, they went through one by one until they were all done. Moonlight pulled herself across the bed and stood up and stretched, "It is nice to see you again my lady Moonlight."

"Young Wizard, thank you for so diligently watching over this kingdom in my stead as Royal Mage." Wizard bowed his head at her praise, "Though I do my best to, enchanting the city in my sleep to keep all of us safe."

"All of us are truly grateful for your help, Lady Moonlight." Cinnamon said and cleared his throat, "Speaking of which we wanted to ask your council on an issue." She tilted her head her long hair swaying to the side as she did.

"Oh? And what is this issue?"

"Cinnamon hear offered to help an untrained Lightning mage with some weird project." Alchemist chided and Moonlight laughed.

"Oh is that it? What's the issue then? If Cinnamon wants to help let him, that's your job as the council, handle all magical issues the citizens have... Though I will say Lightning Magic is rare... Very rare, so rare the City of Wizards had no mages with that affinity by the time of the war.'

"None hmm?" vampire said and place his hand on his cheek, "How odd, Cinnamon are you sure that was the kind of magic he had?"

"Positive..." This baffled Cinnamon, he couldn't think of what that meant.

Wizard cleared his throat, "Are you saying that he's the rebirth of this kind of magic? If so I have to agree with my Lady Moonlight, Cinnamon should definitely help him, find out why this kind of magic emerged after all theses, that's my decree as Council Head, I trust you have no objections Alchemist?" She crossed her arms and pouted.

"As a scientist I'm intrigued, but as his friend I'm concerned. But if that's what you say Wizard, give it your best Cinnamon." He nodded and brushed his hair out of his face feeling a buzz in his pocket.

"Ah forgiving me for this Lady Moonlight." He pulled out his phone and checked the message, "Oh it's Lemon, he says he wants to start during Holy Moon Remembrance Week."

"What day?" Wizard asked and Cinnamon texted back and waited for the response.

"Thursday through Sunday." 

"Tch, that isn't much time... If you will my Lady Moonlight I'll be taking my leave, I'll need to finish deciphering those dark spells, Cinnamon will need all the help he can get. For now, consider this Lemon your own apprentice, you've observed my teachings of Snow Sugar and Cream Puff, you'll know what to do right?"

Cinnamon nodded, "Of course Wizard, guess I'll have to do some of my own studying. Then I'll be going too Lady Moonlight, Alchemist?"

"I'll stay here for a bit, I want to read some of her spell-books, I'll make sure your apprentices don't make a mess."

"Oh I do love teaching young mages about their past. Young Wizard do you mind if I give them the lecture?" Moonlight beamed and Wizard shook his head.

"Not at all, feel free. Vampire come with me, I'll need your help." The red haired man chuckled and followed after Wizard giving Moonlight a curt bow.

"Right I should get going too. Farewell Lady Moonlight, see you later Alchemist, Cream Puff, Snow Sugar." After saying his own goodbyes Cinnamon left the Lunatorium and stopped in the hall to look at one of the murals, his favorite one of Milk and Yam clashing in the clock tower of the City of Wizards, "Why do people fight? Why do we get mad? I'm sure I'll learn a lot about this working with Lemon, Sir Milk, Sir Yam, grant me your blessing, so maybe the two of us can be friends one day." 


	5. Sudden Heatwave hits Royal Capital of Cremeheart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Chapter includes the beginnings of Lemon and Cinnamon hanging out and magical intrigue

It was the fourth day of Holy Moon Remembrance Week and instead of doing shows Cinnamon was cooped up in a college dorm room with his current least favorite person in the world, sipping ice tea with the AC cranked watching idly as Lemon messed with a variety of devices on his desk, "Jeez it's hot, I was hoping it would stay cool until summer actually started." Cinnamon whined tugging on the collar of his t-shirt, it was too hot for his usual suits so he opted to borrow some of Whipped's clothes which were a little big on him but they kept him from burning up.

"Hmmph." Lemon grunted tapping away on the weird tablet he brought over from a friend's room and dug through a box on the table, "Can you hand me the third smallest wrench in that case?" Cinnamon obliged opening the tool case and pulling out the designated wrench and glanced at the handle before extending it out for his partner who blindly groped for it behind him and after a few tries took it.

"Avocado Iron Works huh? She supplies all the swords the castle knights use." 

"Mhmm." He certainly wasn't one for conversation, Cinnamon pouted and downed his glass and stood up and walked over to the desk to peer over his shoulder, "... Do you mind?" Cinnamon backed away and turned around to study the wall behind him, the dorm was very lightly furnished, there was a bevy of pictures on the wall of Lemon with some girls doing a variety of normal kid things. Having a picnic, hanging out at the beach, and playing tennis, in which a girl with orange hair was clearly winning.

"Lots of pictures of you..." He idly commented not expecting a response.

"Herb's the one who took them." Lemon sat back in his chair and wiped the sweat from his brow, "You, magic."

Cinnamon sighed and stepped up to the desk and looked at the device, he had totally taken the cube apart and spread the parts across the table. A complicated mixture of circuits and chips that Cinnamon was sure he'd get sued for breaking, "Which part." Lemon gestured broadly across the mess meaning that it didn't matter, he picked up a plastic cube and scrutinized it, "I don't see how this is a puzzle cube, all the faces are the same." Apart from this one which he pressed his index finger to one face side and whispered enchantments the cube starting to glow with a soft light.

"It's a puzzle only I can solve." Lemon said, "The cube dampens and refines electrical currents, by sliding the puzzle into the right place I can use it to make electricity gather around it for all sorts of things." Cinnamon shrugged and tossed him the part which he caught easily and examined it.

"I'm sure it'd be easier if you had a better handle on your magic."

"That's not an option." Lemon snapped causing Cinnamon to flinch a bit, "It's easier for everyone this way, and who told you I was magic?"

Cinnamon gave him a smug grin, "We can just tell, I'm not a member of the magic council for no reason," He said and Lemon crossed his arms, "Look I won't tell anyone if it's some big secret, you asked for my assistance as a mage so I'm going to give you my help, whether that's advice or actual magic, it's how I can make it up to you."

Lemon glanced away and put his tools down, "Let's take a break, it's too hot for this." Cinnamon sat back down and Lemon turned his chair to face him, "... Since I'm holding you hostage for four days I might as well, get to know you..." His tone suggested that he'd rather drink arsenic, his friends probably put him up to it. 

"Well there isn't really much to know about me..."

"The magic council, your my age right? How'd you get a position on it? Isn't everyone older than you?" 

"Well yes, but I'm a Pureblood, someone with a natural talent for magic. I'm on par with Wizard, Alchemist, and Vampire in terms of magical skill, so it's natural they'd want someone of my skill level. I grew up in the slums of Civitas Magia, a small city that was built to replace the City of Wizards."

"City of Wizards?" Lemon asked and Cinnamon nodded.

"Yeah, you know about it right? Anyone who knows anything about the Holy Moon War knows about the City of Wizards." At this Lemon's eyes lit up.

"No actually. I'm from Sugar Star, we don't celebrate Holy Moon Remembrance Week. Could you tell me about it?" Cinnamon closed his eyes and nodded, he touched the table tucked into the corner and it moved in front of him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out five cards, "Playing cards?"

Cinnamon spread the cards out on the table face up, "Tarot cards, this set was made after to depict the events of the Holy Moon War. This first one," He pointed to a card with four people on it, two men and two women, the men were holding hands and facing away from each other and the women were holding hands and facing forward, "The Fool Upright depicts the four major players of the war, Our Lady Moonlight, the grand mage, her sister Lady Pomegranate, and the knights of the City Sir Milk of the Divine Soul and Sir Yam of the Berserk Heart."

_ All started peaceful in the City of Wizards, Moonlight and her sister Pomegranate protected the people and dictated the flow of magic with their Arcane Magicks. Milk and Yam protected the city from the inside maintaining peace with their mastery of War Magicks. The four of them lived peacefully in the thriving society. _

"Next is The Magician Reversed, this depicts the corruption of Lady Pomegranate and Sir Yam." Upright it showed two people standing at a table with a magic rune on it and reversed they seemed as though they were being swallowed by the rune.

_ One day a king from a far off kingdom came to the city and asked for the city's help. Moonlight, Milk, and Yam agreed that they should help but Pomegranate said that helping outsiders would lead to the ruin of their society. She was ignored and grew furious, wishing to change her sister's mind. Then she heard the whispers of a spirit that promised her great strength to do just that, so she cast a dark spell. A spell that corrupted her heart and twisted her into the Dark Enchantress, granting her mastery over Dark Magicks. She sought to take over the city and to usurp her sister, to do this she needed someone to combat Moonlight while she held her magic and this, to do so she took hold of Yam's heart and he went on a rampage. _

"Next are The Strength Reversed and The Hanged Man Upright, these depict Sir Milk and Sir Yam's battle on the clock tower." Strength showed two figures clashing blades in front of a giant clock face, The Hanged Man showed a man falling, or suspended, Lemon couldn't tell. 

_ Milk and Moonlight discussed what to do about the sudden turmoil and after Moonlight granted him the magic to free his friend Milk set out to stop Yam. Their battle was fierce and filled with tears, Milk could tell Yam didn't want to fight as they struggled against each other. Mace scratched shield, sword struck flesh as they fought with all their might until Milk's sword pierced Yam's chest at the edge of the tower, to which Yam smiled softly and whispered his dear friend a secret before he was gone. _

"I'm confused." Lemon interrupted him, "Is The Hanged Man falling or suspended?" 

 

"Good question, the truth is we don't know, we also don't know what Yam said to Milk, all we know is Milk killed him and Yam was gone somehow. And then the final one, Death Upright, Moonlight defeating her sister and sealing her away. I don't need to recount this part of the story, we all know that, don't we?" Death showed a solemn woman holding a staff out from her, "And that's about the entirety of the war, I left out a lot of the details though, the royal library has books on it if you'd like."

"Of course, I had no idea it was apart of this Holy Moon War, a war of four people... So was the City destroyed?"

"Yes, Moonlight and Dark Enchantress fought viciously, along with Yam's rampage and Milk's counter attack, the city was reduced to ruins. That's where Civitas Magica comes in, it was built by the king to house the mages but it wasn't enough and quickly became a fairly desolate place. I grew up there, doing street performances with my magic for coin, people thought they were tricks because magic died out in that city quickly but I was a rare case, a Pureblood City of Wizards decedent, why wouldn't the council want me." Cinnamon paused and looked away,"Enough sad talk, where are you from?" This question seemed to shock Lemon as he took a while to respond.

"Sugar Star, like I said, my parents died when I was young, so my friend Orange's family took me in. I met Herb in high-school along with Lime, Hero, and Grapefruit and we all decided to go to OvenBreak University together... Well, Grapefruit sort of just followed us, she does that." Lemon said and hesitated again as though he was collecting himself, "So I take it you live in the royal apartments?" He nodded, "Is it lonely there?"

"Nope, I have a roommate, my friend Whipped Cream, he's from Civitas Magica too, though he isn't magic, unless you count the mesmerizing way he dances." Cinnamon chuckled before remembering, "Oh right! Whipped is having a performance tomorrow, I was wondering if you already had tickets I could get you some."

"Oh no I'm all set. I'm all set, Orange made sure we our tickets were secure already." Orange huh, suddenly there was a loud buzzing, like a swarm of angry bees in the room, "A news alert..." Lemon took out his phone and read it allowed, "Protesters clog main roads, expect heavy traffic delays."

Cinnamon groaned and swung his head back, "Again? That's the third time this month. Guess I should call Whipped-." Cinnamon stood up and took out his phone, there were several very profane messages from Wizard in the council's group chat, "Sounds like Wizard's already mad about it. Thinking back I think he had a seminar here today, meaning we're stuck here together."

"Stuck here?"

"Mhmm, the protesters are against the monarchy, they think we should dissolve it like Dragon Valley did and establish a republic, but they'll probably be there all night and I won't be able to get home. Sorry if you wanted to work more, I need to sort this out." Cinnamon bowed elegantly and swept out of the room before Lemon could protest and shut the door behind him, he sighed and stepped into the hallway and out into the common room, there were a few people there, people he didn’t know and didn’t know if they knew him, “Guess I need to go outside-.” He muttered and as he reached the door it opened in front of him, a young woman with dark blue hair stepped in and looked around.

”Pardon me, have you seen Adventure?”

”Adventure? The son of Duke Cocoa? He goes to this school?” Cinnamon asked and the woman huffed.

”You haven’t then, my apologies for disturbing you.” She curtsied and swept past him into the dorm halls, odd. Shrugging off that odd encounter Cinnamon stepped outside and was greeted by his query, "Oh your here, I was going to call you."

Wizard huffed and adjusted his hat, "I've been looking for you actually, I knew you were working with that Lemon so I asked around for a while, seems we aren't going home today." He turned around and started to walk away and Cinnamon trailed him, "How was that by the way, I see he didn't see you off, piss him off?"

"Oh, you know." Cinnamon shrugged, "We didn't do much, it was too hot to focus, speaking of which, aren't you, burning?" Wizard, despite it being almost 90 out, was wearing his robes like always.

"Ice magic, I'm always cold so this is very pleasant."

"Lucky you..." Cinnamon grumble, "Alchemist is still at the castle right? I hope she's doing alright, the kids too." Cinnamon sighed at the thought of his poor cousin, trapped in the castle with the knights and their strict etiquette.

"As much as I loathe her Alchemist is very capable, she'll be fine, meanwhile the two of us need to find a way to survive." 

"Wizard we're basically locked out of our house, were not stranded on a desert island, we can get a hotel and have the emperor reimburse us." Cinnamon felt his phone buzz and took it out again, there was a single message and it took up half the screen, "Millennia Alchemist, you don't have to send us an official status report."

"Should I bother reading it?" Wizard asked and their eyes met for a second, "Cool I'll ignore it. Let's go find somewhere cool to sit, don't want your pasty ass burning up," He said and Cinnamon crossed his arms.

"I'm not pasty- hey! Wait up!"

"It's been a while since I've been in the city proper." Cinnamon murmured glancing at store fronts as they passed by, "I do all my shows up in the University district, college students make a good audience, most of them are half asleep and can be amazed by even the simplest of tricks." 

"The crown city really isn't that special," Wizard said, "Sure it's the biggest city in the kingdom but it's mostly all tourist traps, you really should start going on patrols for the council." Oh boy, it was time for Wizard's half hour speech on how Cinnamon should be doing more, "Our council job has two parts, oversee all magic that exists and determine what should and shouldn't be forbidden, and preventing the use of said forbidden magic, of course I can handle the crown city myself but you need to mix in protecting while you roam around the University district, with all the magic students around there, even if they aren't Purebloods like us, they can still be dangerous if they mess with forbidden spells."

He needed to change the topic before Wizard got out of control, "Lemon said he was from Sugar Star, all this big city stuff must be pretty overwhelming to someone not used to it, though he seemed to adapt pretty quickly with..." Cinnamon trailed off and his nose twitched, "Magic?"

"So you felt it too?" Wizard asked stopping in his tracks, "Someones using magic, a lot of it too..." Wizard dug around in his robe and pulled out two candies, wrapped in blue and yellow foil, he tossed one to cinnamon who unwrapped and put it in his mouth, "How you came up with this thing I'll never understand."

"It isn't that hard, it's a type of reaction magic that causes it to change flavor based on ethereal imbalance, it required oral stimulation-." Cinnamon snorted, "To activate so I figured enchanting jellies worked well enough. It's sour..."

"Uh... Cherry? Fire magic then-." Fire magic was common enough for household use but that much, "If so we're at a serious disadvantage if they're doing something illegal."

"It's coming from... That apartment." he pointed it out, "Let's go investigate, as is our job, and another thing-."

"Save it for later, we're actually doing our work here." 

The two of them approached the apartment door and Cinnamon tongued the candy melting in the corner of his mouth, "Still says fire, can we handle this with just the two of us should we need to fight?" Wizard smirked as he called his staff to him, Cinnamon pulled his wand out from nowhere.

"Of course we can, now on the count of three we go in. One... Two...” Before Wizard could finish the countdown the door burst open and a large sword swung down Wizard blocked the attack with his staff creating a buffer of ice between him and the sword, he leapt back letting the sword crash into the ground and summoned pillars of ice around the sword and Cinnamon stepped through dimensions to behind the swordsman, “I’ll handle this guy. You go find out the source of the magic.” 

“On it!” Cinnamon took off into the apartment leaving Wizard with the attacker. Coming into the main room Cinnamon immediately took note of the magic circle etched on the ground and the spell books surrounding it. “What’s this for...” He scanned the circle trying to decipher the runes in the lines but was interrupted by a sudden burst of fire in the center of the room. Cinnamon leapt back and held his wand out, the source of the magic was a young girl with dark skin and blood red eyes with long matching hair and a crystal diadem around her head.

”Leave, now.” She held an open compact in her hands where light started to gather, “By grace of my master, burn!” She held out the compact and fire shot forward, with a yelp Cinnamon ducked down and teleported behind her.

”Too slow for me.” He pulled a fan of playing cards from his sleeve and tossed them at the girl, she leapt out of the way and gathered more light in her compact when Cinnamon noticed there were a lot of mirrors in the room, he counted at least ten at a glance before dodging another fire blast. He pulled more cards and tossed them before realizing the girl was gone, “Where did she- gah!” Cinnamon was blasted forward and crashed into the wall and struggled to turn himself around, “So that’s the trick, you can teleport through mirrors.” Cinnamon backed himself up against the wall and searched with his hands out of sight landing on an open spell book, he didn’t know what the spell was but it was his only hope.

”...” She didn’t answer and only gathered more light in her compact, “This time you’ll burn for sure.” She pulled her hands back and before she could fire again a man crashed into the wall shattering a mirror with the back of his head, the man was soon swallowed by a sea of jagged icicles trapping him against the wall. Wizard leapt in and aimed his staff at the girl who stepped back, light still gathered in her hands.

”If your gonna have others do your dirty work make sure they’re at least somewhat competent.” Cinnamon raised his hand and thrust his arm towards her, a current of wind blew into the room shattering the mirrors and knocking the girl off balance. 

“Wizard now!” 

“Right!” He waved his staff and several icicles appeared around him shooting forward and piercing the girls dress pinning her to a wall, “You okay?” He offered a hand and helped Cinnamon up.

”A little singed but other than that...” He dusted himself off, “So what do we do with these two?”

”Well we- hey where’d she go?” The girl was no longer pinned to the wall, they quickly turned their attention to the frozen man, now freed from his glacial prison and leaning on the girl for support.

”Come Dark, we must go.” She said and a large mirror appeared behind her and they jumped back into it, the mirror vanishing alongside them.

”Crud...” Wizard sighed and leaned against the wall, “Now I have to file a report about this...”

”Complain about the report later, we need to find out what this magic circle is, lend me your staff for a second.” Wizard complied handing him the hefty weapon and crouched down among the ice and traced the sketch lines.

”Why if I may ask?” 

“She teleports using mirrors, I’m gonna break any extras they may have so they can’t use this place anymore... But before that... That mirror which aided in their escape.”

”Was a projection of The Mirror of Malice, yes.” Wizard didn’t look up from the sigil, reaching over and grabbing a spell book and flipping through it, “Which we thought was lost to time...”

Cinnamon shrugged and went off climbing over the wave of ice that swallowed the entrance to the apartment searching for more mirrors, “Why was it here then?” He called out breaking away fragments of ice to get into a door.

”Not sure, if we knew more about what they’re doing here we could guess as to why they had it." Wizard responded, "My guess right now is that they're with the Dark Enchantress cult, they have spells that can mimic the effects of her Treasures. So for all we know it could just be an effect to startle us, I didn't feel any magic..." Wizard's voice trailed off and Cinnamon bit the inside of his cheek. He slipped into the room he freed and turned on the light, the bathroom. Cinnamon looked himself over in the reflection turning around and glancing over his shoulder.

"Whipped's shirt is totally burned... That fire wasn't even that hot I didn't notice..." He lifted his shirt up, luckily his back wasn't burned so he wouldn't need to go to the doctor, satisfied he turned back around and twirled Wizard's staff to point the end at the mirror and jabbed it a few times cracking the glass, "That should do it. I think I got all the mirrors!" He called only to get a grunt in response. Cinnamon climbed out of the bathroom and back over to Wizard, "What's the situation."

"Not sure, the circle's obviously dark magic in origin but I destroyed most of it with my ice, so I can't tell what it was supposed to do." Wizard stood back up, "Confiscate as many of the spell books you can find and I'll set about trying to figure out what this is."

"Alongside deciphering the Forbidden Manuscripts?" Cinnamon asked and Wizard nodded, "I can help with that, you have a lot on your plate."

"No, I'll be fine, you have your own job. Find out where the Mirror of Malice is." Cinnamon grimaced.

"That's impossible, archaeologists have been searching for it for decades, most have decided it was a legend and doesn't exist, we only know it's real because Moonlight told us." Wizard shrugged taking his staff back tapping the ice causing it all to shatter and set about gathering all the spell books, Cinnamon lent a hand grabbing the ones he was closest too.

"You'll work something out, I know Duke Cocoa's son was close to a major breakthrough with it but he went missing."

"... Duke Cocoa? Oh, then I should be fine, I happen to know where our missing heir is."

Wizard and Cinnamon retired to a hotel as close to the apartment complex as they could find, Cinnamon bought a cheap souvenir shirt from the hotel's store and put it on tossing away the burnt one, he collapsed on the bed and sighed, "I'm exhausted."

"Probably because you used magic your body isn't used to processing, though it was a smart move, a high pressure windstorm to shatter all the mirrors and cut off her escape." Cinnamon chuckled as though it was an intentional move rather than a last ditch effort. "I do wonder who those two were, fire magic, dark magic, and the ability to teleport is a rare combination, and that swordsman could use dark magic too, so they were obviously up to no good." He commented not looking up from his spell book, "And these spell books are mostly introductory stuff apart from a few which are more specific types, what could they have been doing with this..." Cinnamon just nodded and pulled out his phone, on the way over he sent Lemon a text asking if he knew Adventure and whether or not he could give him his contact info, no response yet.

"When do you want to call Alchemist about this, she needs to know."

"I'll tell her in person tomorrow, I want to find out as much as I can on my own before I ask  _ her  _  for help." 

"It's not a bad thing to ask for help."

"Are you sure you should be saying that?" Wizard countered and Cinnamon sighed, "Though, I probably should report now." 

"I'll give her a call." Cinnamon opened up his contact and scrolled down to Alchemist's name and called her and hit the speaker button setting the phone down on the nightstand.

"Hello?" Her voice crackled from the other end.

"Hey Alchemist, Wizard and I got a hotel."

"Your calling for that-?"

"We encountered a mage, doing something probably illegal." Wizard called not looking up from his books.

"Probably?"

"We don't know what exactly they were doing but when we came to investigate they attacked us so..."

"Then they were probably doing something illegal, did you apprehend them?" They were quiet for a few seconds, "You'd probably be here if you did, right, how did they escape?"

"We think they used the Mirror of Malice, or it was just an illusion, they could teleport through mirrors so we're not sure on the specifics of it. So Cinnamon's going to look into the whereabouts of the mirror while I try to figure out what that magic circle was." Wizard said and Cinnamon gestured for him to continue, "And... I'd like if you lent me a hand with that so I can split my attention between it and the manuscript..." Alchemist laughed and Wizard shrunk down in his chair.

"Sure Wizard, I'll help out... Oh Princess is calling for me, I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Yeah see you." Cinnamon hung up and noticed a text had come in.

 

_ Sure, I can take you to his room tomorrow after our work. -Lemon _

 

So his plans for tomorrow were set, Cinnamon yawned and fell back onto the pillow, "I'm going to bed Wizard, keep it down." He said and Wizard grumbled in response. Cinnamon shut his eyes and his mind drifted to thoughts of the two they encountered today, just who were they, and what were they up to?

  
  



End file.
